Afghanistan

FORT LEAVENWORTH, KAN. - The attorney for the Army staff sergeant suspected of killing 16 Afghan civilians yesterday questioned the quality of the evidence against his client and said he planned to travel to Afghanistan to gather his own. John Henry Browne said he met with Robert Bales for 11 hours over two days at Fort Leavenworth, where his client is being held. He added that there was still a lot he didn't know about the March 11 shootings. "I don't know about the evidence in this case.

A Marine from Hawley, in Wayne County in northeastern Pennsylvania, died Sunday in Afghanistan, the Defense Department said yesterday. Pfc. Serge Kropov, 21, died in Helmand province of a "nonhostile incident" that is under investigation, the department said. He was assigned to Marine Aircraft Group 16, Third Marine Aircraft Wing, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Marine Corps Air Station in Miramar, Calif.

Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze said the Soviet Union has suspended the withdrawal of its troops from Afghanistan because of persistent violations of a U.N.-negotiated agreement. "Let's wait and see," Shevardnadze told reporters at the United Nations yesterday. "It is necessary to stop the violations that take place. It is the most important thing. " In another development, 35 people were killed and more than 150 injured when a rocket landed in a central square in Kabul today during a rebel missile attack on the Afghan capital, the Soviet news agency Tass reported.

President Obama should take full advantage of the opportunity provided by the death of terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden to dramatically reshape U.S. policy related to Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India. For a decade, this country has expended an inordinate amount of its resources, not to mention the more than 1,500 soldiers killed, to fight a war in Afghanistan that never promised to yield comparable strategic results. The cost was swallowed in the mistaken belief that a "war on terror" could be won if a decisive blow were struck on one front.

A top Foreign Ministry spokesman today said the Soviet Union has suspended its troop withdrawal from Afghanistan because of heavy attacks by rebels and hinted the pullout might not be completed by a Feb. 15 deadline. "The Soviet troops are being withdrawn due to the goodwill of the Soviet government," First Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Bessmertnykh told a news conference. "They will be withdrawn in honorable conditions. " The current atmosphere of heavy attacks by insurgents with arms supplied by the United States, Pakistan and other countries "does not provide conditions for such a withdrawal of Soviet troops," Bessmertnykh said.

IJUST FLEW from Philadelphia to Columbia, S.C., for my 18-year-old son's orientation at University of South Carolina for his fall start of college studies. Sitting next to me on the small plane was an even younger young man - a 17-year-old on his way to a different orientation: 10 weeks of Army basic training at Fort Jackson, S.C. The young man, like an overgrown puppy strapped in beside me, eagerly twitched with anticipation. This was only his second airplane ride. (The first came earlier in the day from his home in Minnesota to Philadelphia.)

Soviet ground forces have returned to the northern Afghan city of Kunduz after pulling out two weeks ago, the Washington Post reported today. The maneuver appears to reflect conflict between the Soviet government and army over how to execute the withdrawl of its troops from Afghanistan, western diplomats said today. The move was the first instance of Soviet troops returning to a city already abandoned since the overall withdrawal began May 15. U.S. officials in Washington confirmed the Soviet troop move but said it did not appear to break the Geneva accord on the pullout.

Sylvester Stallone says that "Rambo" will next appear in Afghanistan on a rescue mission to free his former commanding officer from his Communist captors. The second "Rambo" movie ended with John Rambo walking bare-chested across Thailand. Next, he will lead the Mujahedeen tribesmen into battle on horseback. Stallone, currently working on "Over the Top," said he will do the new "Rambo" movie in the fall for release next July 4. He said he is dubbing this film " 'The Charge of the Light Brigade' across the plains of Afghanistan into the mouth of pain.

By Daniel L. Davis There has been a great deal of discussion in recent weeks regarding the appropriate size of the post-2014 U.S. military footprint in Afghanistan. Many well-known pundits have argued the United States should keep as many as 15,000 troops on the ground. The rationale cited is that we must have a "robust presence" to accomplish American strategic objectives. They argue that going with a force smaller than that, or taking the so-called zero-option of complete withdrawal, must be resisted to avoid defeat.

If anyone still needed proof of President Obama's reluctance to let foreign policy distract from his domestic agenda, he provided an excess in his State of the Union address. In the brief foreign policy portion of the speech, Obama revisited his constant themes: He trumpeted the end of America's combat missions abroad (last year he cited Iraq, this year Afghanistan) and the need for allies to shoulder the burdens of fighting terrorism - with our assistance. "I believe in a smarter kind of American leadership.

UP IN THE high desert of northeastern Utah near the Colorado border, a teen with a jawline as rugged as the surrounding mountain ranges decided early in life that he was a Marine. Staff Sgt. Daniel D. Gurr enlisted before his senior year at Uintah High School, where he was an all-state soccer player, a defender known to sacrifice his body on the field. Days after graduating in 2008, he left his hometown of Vernal for boot camp. Three years later, when Gurr came home from Afghanistan in 2011, thousands of people lined the highways and small streets.

In a crowded aircraft hangar at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, President Obama told thousands of military service members Monday that they "are the backbone of the greatest nation on Earth," and thanked them for their "selfless character. " Obama also praised base personnel for flying supplies and building infrastructure as part of the fight against Ebola in West Africa, and aerially refueling U.S. warplanes degrading "the brutal terrorist group ISIL in Iraq and Syria. " "When the world calls on America, we call on you - our men and women in uniform - because nobody can do what you do," the president said.

A graphic with a story Tuesday about the formal end of the U.S. military mission in Afghanistan incorrectly illustrated the number of soldiers killed in America's wars. Each square represented 1,000 fatalities.

An overseas supplier of food and water to U.S. troops in the deserts of Afghanistan on Monday pleaded guilty in what a federal prosecutor in Philadelphia called a case of "war profiteering," and paid $389 million in fines, damages, and penalties. From July 2005 until April 2009, Supreme Foodservice GmbH and an affiliated company in the United Arab Emirates overcharged the U.S. military by $48 million for water and fresh fruit and vegetables delivered to bases in Afghanistan, according to charges by the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

Marine Capt. Jason Dequenne came running down the sidewalk Wednesday toward the site of Tun Tavern in Old City. Barely out of breath, he slowed to a stop on the spot where the Marine Corps was founded in 1775. But he wasn't just out for a jog, and it was no coincidence he was on South Front Street. The Marine Corps turns 239 on Monday, and Dequenne, 41, is honoring its birthday by running 239 miles on a two-week-long journey from Washington to New York. On Wednesday, he ran through Philadelphia, bringing his mileage to 174.2.

Kevin McCloskey, 27, is getting married in May to a girl he first kissed under the Wildwood boardwalk in fifth grade. At least that's what he says. She swears it was the summer after sixth grade, maybe seventh. "Every time he tells the story," says Bridget McGeehan, 27, "it gets earlier and earlier. " Kevin and Bridget, who grew up blocks apart in Mayfair, own a house now in Elkins Park. They have two dogs, a mastiff, Murdock, who pees at the slightest excitement, and a tougher little terrier named Dean, as in Martin.

Having just returned from Ukraine, I found it hard to recognize the world President Obama described in his West Point foreign policy speech last week. The facts on the ground - in Russia, Ukraine, Syria, and Afghanistan - contradict the key points he was making. That disconnect makes friends and enemies worldwide question his ability to lead. Obama rightly says the odds of a direct attack from any foreign nation are minimal. But in a rapidly changing world, with China rising, Russia invading its neighbors, and terrorists multiplying, he failed to clarify how he would counter new threats.

When recent headlines roared that Fallujah had fallen to al-Qaeda, the American public became mildly interested, recalling U.S. troops' 2004 fight for control of the city in Iraq's Anbar province. But few Americans want to be reminded of those bad old days, and the country's interest waned quickly. Once reassured by President Obama that the setback for Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's forces would not lead to more U.S. troops being deployed to Iraq, most of the nation turned to other concerns, such as the icy weather being produced by something called a polar vortex.

In Afghanistan's Helmand province, a squad of Marines and Afghan soldiers had just crossed what they call the "trigger line" - an invisible point that sets off an ambush by Taliban fighters. They were quickly pinned down and radioed for help. More than a mile away, Lt. Mark Bodrog and other Marines and Afghans donned 70- to 80-pound packs of gear and ran through the 125-degree heat toward battle, hoping to avoid IEDs along the way. "As if the gates of hell had opened, they fired hundreds of machine-gun rounds [on the enemy]